The invention relates to a cover for a spare wheel arranged externally at the rear of a motor vehicle, having a clamping strap which covers the entire tread of the tire and in its lateral edge regions is drawn in towards the center of the wheel. The cover also has a round plate which covers the free side of the wheel and whose peripheral edge region extends in a bent fashion towards the spare wheel and over which peripheral edge region the drawn-in edge region of the clamping strap engages.
A spare wheel cover of this kind is disclosed in the German Patent Document 91 09 453.4.
The known cover has, inter alia, the disadvantage that it can only be mounted in practice by two persons because holding the plate tight and simultaneous wrapping around and clamping the clamping strap can hardly be managed by one person alone. Furthermore, it is disadvantageous with the known cover that it can be used in practice only for one tire width.
The present invention is therefore based on the object of avoiding these disadvantages and providing a spare wheel cover which can be mounted simply and easily by only one person, which can be used for different tire widths and which is held tight and free of rattling in the mounted state.
This object is achieved according to the present invention by providing a cover that has an outer, annular region of the plate which extends in a bent manner towards the spare wheel. A support body can be inserted into a vehicle-side receptacle as far as a stop that is attached to the center of the rear of the plate. The length of the support body is dimensioned such that, when tightening the clamping strap, the plate, acting so to speak as a disc spring, presses the support body against its stop.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.